03 March 2016
Research Paper
The Mexican drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes was considered Mexico’s most powerful drug trafficker in the 90s which was beneficial to Mexico, but also gave a lot more problems and turned Mexico into a war zone. Born on December 17, 1956 Amado Carrillo Fuentes made a big impact on Mexico. He came from the small town of Navolato, Sinaloa and became a powerful drug trafficker in the 90s (Susan E. Reed). Much of his life was a mystery. Everybody knew about him, but almost nobody spoke about him. He was nicknamed, “El Señor de Los Cielos” the lord of the skies. This was because he had a very special tool that got him to his success in the trafficking business.
He was to later become Mexico’s most wanted. Even though he came from a small town in Sinaloa called Novolato, he took a crazy(Susan E Reed). Much of his life was a mystery though Everybody knew about him and she bo almost nobody dared to speak of him. ton Post in the ts the ed After Death, Kingpins life is an open Book by Jonn Anderson Nord Carrillo Fuentes was nicknamed El Señor de los cielos aka The lord of the Skies. This nickname came from Camille's fleet of airplanes that he used to ns port dngs. He transported mostly Cocaine free mexico to other countries like Colombia, Europe, Peru, and Chile.
Over the years, Carrillo made a fortune that was incomparable to that of any other drug trafficker in Mexico. Forbes released an article stating that Amado Carrillo had a net worth of twenty five billion dollars. Some say that this money was not beneficial in any way to Mexico, but others can prove them wrong. According to a Washington post article by John Ward Anderson titled: After Death, Kingpin’s life is An Open Book, Carrillo Fuentes behaved more like a businessman than a drug trafficker. He controlled his business very well and used his money to his advantage. He needed protection from the government so he would use his money to bribe officials. (Anderson). During his last years of life, Carrillo was starting to be sought after not only by the Mexican government, but also by the American government so he had to find a way to become unseen again.
The Washington post article by John Anderson states that Carrillo would give protection payments as he called it, of as much as 500 million dollars a year. (Anderson, 3) This was all just to get the government workers to stay quiet about Carrillo’s whereabouts. It got to a point where Carrillo and his cartel came under increasing pressure from the Mexican anti-drug forces. The Univision article written by Manuel Juarez states that the defense secretary of Mexico at the time and other government officials were offered a payment of 60 million dollars as a bribe. With this bribe, Carillo left a down payment of 6 million dollars as a gesture to the government officials. (Juarez) Alrhough, these are only a few bribes that we know about.
Carrillo even with his drug business also managed to help the community people a lot. There are many sources that can confirm that Carrillo was very generous with his money especially towards the churches. The article titled: After Death, Kingpin’s Life Is an Open Book, written by John Anderson, it talks about how many church officials from local churches in Mexico confirmed Carrillo's generous donations. Carrillo was even seen in a picture with a priest from Mexico in Jerusalem in the year 1995. This showed his close relationship with people of the Catholic Church.
All of this money Carrillo had seemed helpful to many, but to others it was the death of them in literal terms. The drug trafficking business is a very competitive and dangerous one. Carrillo and his cartel were the biggest and most powerful cartel in Mexico at the time. This caused a lot of violence. Many other cartels wanted to take control of the territories where Carrillo's cartel were leaders. There was constant battles and shootouts in between contrary cartels that were fighting for power. The PBS article Family Tree- Juarez Cartel written by Susan E. Reed, stated that the Sinaloa cartel was Carrillo's rival cartel and fought for territory the most. These fights and battles for power among the cartels reportedly caused the deaths of at least 400 people. These deaths were not counting all of the deaths of the people he ordered to be killed for not keeping their silence or for violating something of his. Carrillo had to always be very aware of his surroundings and the people that worked with him to avoid any type of betrayal. During his life, he led his Cartel pretty high up.
After Carrillo’s death, everything went downhill not only for his cartel that had to suffer the loss of their leader, but also for the Mexican government which would no longer be benefited from Carrillo’s Cartel. Without Carrillo alive, the Mexican government would no longer be receiving protection payments or bribes. It was after Carrillo’s death that the real war zone started in Mexico. There was an even greater fight for power now that the leadership structure of the Juarez cartel had fallen. There was betrayal in other cartels just to try to gain power of territories that were once controlled by Carrillo and his people. Shortly after Carrillo’s death though, we realize that the Juarez cartel starts reorganizing itself with the help of Carrillo's brother who would become the new leader of the cartel. The article by CNN, “Tortured Body of Doctor Found in Oil Drum” states the following, “The body of a doctor believed to have been involved in the plastic surgery death of a top Mexican drug lord in July has been found.” This vast was found along with two other bodies that had signs of have being tortured. This was seen as a retaliation from the Juarez Cartel in regards to Carrillo’s death.
Before Carrillo's death, he had a lot of business deals to resolve. He held close connections with the leader of a Colombian cartel, Pablo Escobar. According to the PBS article titled, “Family Tree- Juarez Cartel Amado Carrillo Fuentes, assures that Carrillo reportedly forwarded anywhere from 20-30 million dollars to Colombia for each major operation. (Family.) Another article from the Washington post titled Mexico Special Report: After Death, Kingpin’s Life Is an Open Book, written by John Ward Anderson says that right before his death, Carrillo was in the process of shifting his drug operations to Chile. He used a form of money exchange there to launder money through bank accounts in New York.(Anderson) Whether his process was successful after his death, we are not sure. What we are sure of is the fact that even after his death, his cartel was able to recover and continue his business. Not only was his brother in charge, but soon after, one of his sons got involved in the business.
The Juarez cartel was led by his family after Carrillo’s death. His son was in charge after the death of Carrillo's Brother. Soon after Carrillo's brother’s death, Carrillo’s son was imprisoned.
Since Carrillo’s arrest, the Juarez cartel has not been the same. Many events caused the Juarez cartel to slowly die out and start losing power. After 2009, the Sinaloa cartel took over much of the Juarez cartel’s territory making itself the biggest most powerful cartel in Mexico. Even though the cartel was still running after Carrillo’s death, it came nowhere near what Carrillo accomplished during his life.
Currently, the Juarez cartel has very little to no power in Mexico. This isn't always great news because it just means that a new cartel has taken over. The drug war in Mexico isn't believed to be easy to stop. As soon as one cartel loses power, another cartel takes power and it's a never ending cycle.
Overall we were able to see how Carrillo’s drug trafficking business influenced life in Mexico. Some outcomes were good, but most of them were terrifying maybe not to the government of Mexico, but to the Mexican people.
Works Cited
DEA. "Family Tree- Juarez Cartel." PBS. PBS, Feb. 1997. Web. 14 Mar. 2016. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mexico/family/juarezcartel.html>.
Ward Anderson, John. "After Death, Kingpin's Life Is an Open Book." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 25 Nov. 2016. Web. 14 Mar. 2016. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/mexico/overview/keyfuentes.htm>.